


Elastic Heart.

by DwarvishWarriors



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Fighting Ring, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, M/M, Sexual Content, Swearing, Violence, Wow, it is not as dark as it sounds I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-05-29 01:58:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6354256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DwarvishWarriors/pseuds/DwarvishWarriors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ori always knew his life was headed for disaster, but who knew the greatest love and miracle in his life could come from the same point.</p><p>Ori is an Omega who has been taken to an underground fighting ring to live with the rings lead alpha.</p><p>It does not turn out the way the masters hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ori always knew his life was headed for disaster. Since the first moment he let out his deafening cry and stopped his mother's pure heart, ever since is father walked out on him and his brothers, ever since his eldest brother Dori began working three jobs and Nori started his thieving ways, ever since he was branded an Omega. He knew, knew in his heart and soul, his life was headed down one route. The path of pain and suffering. How could the bastard omega son of a dead women and a drunkard be anything more? He was a clever and quick young man; he was quite often the toasts of his teachers finest students and everyone of them believed that one day, Ori would go as far or further than any of his alpha peers, if he kept on the path of education he could go very far indeed.

 

 

And then. 

 

Then, on a cold and blustery autumn day, as Ori read his book and waited for the bus to come so he could visit his eldest brother, something different happened.

 

He could not recall who or what had struck him as he fell to the floor and into a dark state of unconsciousness. He could not recall their faces of their voices as he was hauled, almost effortlessly, into the back of a van and placed into the damp darkness, the windows of the van blocked by makeshift curtains.

 

Let it be said, that in unorthodox or frightening situations one has the ability to reflect on their life. Especially those like Ori, who had barely lived a life to begin with. He woke when the van hit a hard right, and was flipped across the small interior of the van, the metal of the base digging into his back and rips and scratching his elbows as he skidded across the sheeted metal. Ori woke and took a moment to try and gather himself and his surrounding, all he found was the overpowering cold of the van and the darkness that seemed to grasp at his lungs, preventing him from screaming or calling out. All he could do was listen.

 

"I don't know, man. I think he's too pretty a thing for the beasts play thing."

 

Ori swallowed heavily, the sickness beginning to form in his throat making him feel weak and light headed.

 

"I don't care, to be honest with you. As long as the wretch keeps beasty happy for a few hours and it puts money in my pocket, I could not give a single shit."

 

Ori closed his eyes, trying to steady his breath and rubbing the back of his throbbing head. Then something changed, the van stopped moving and seemed to lift as his girthed kidnappers got out of the front of the van. Ori scrambled to his feet and pressed his ear against the inside of the van, listening to the faint murmur of people outside. 

 

He pressed himself against the far wall of the van, running parallel with the doors, he waited. Posed and breathing to calm himself as they began to slowly be open, as he saw the setting light of day finally appear through the gap, he ran. 

 

Ori shoved through the thin gap in the door and sprinted, listening to the shocked shouts of the men as he ran down the gravel road, trying to take in his surroundings so he would know, if he ever got far enough away he could tell the police and his brothers of this place.

 

Sadly, he did not get as far as he hoped. 

 

The second time Ori was caught and knocked unconscious, it was like falling into a dreamless sleep that was always the unveiling of a nightmare.

  

When Ori woke, everything was different. The lights were dimmed and the walls a dull grey, that stretched all around the room and onto the floor that was cold beneath Ori's body. The small mans head rotated to his side to see shadowed figures in the distance, watching him, hissing about him in low voices, and videoing him on cold steel cameras. He swayed as he sat up, instantly hit with the stench of an unwashed body, old food and stagnant water. Then another scene filled the air, looming over him, stalking him in the darkness. Alpha. Pure and unmedicated alpha, a scent of power and untamed instinct. Ori was on his knees in an instance, ready to fight off the intruding beast.

 

Flood lights were switched on.

 

The room filled with a stark an unkind light.

 

The alpha was revealed.

 

The man was twice Ori's size in both height and broad width, with bulging muscles shifting and twitching under dirtied skin. The man had dark and matted hair, dirt in every corner and crevice and highlighting the sharp scars across the mans body. A long and jagged scar looming from the corner of his eyebrow and down his severely broken and misplaced nose.

 

Ori had never seen such a beast, and he hoped he would never have to again.

 

Then the alpha charged at him, curiosity taking over the pale eyes as Ori scuttled away across the floor. However, as Ori stood to stand he realised his legs were still quite weak and he did his best to slide across the concrete floor and toward the arms of his laughing captures. That was a better option than being helpless in the alphas presence.

 

Ori scrambled back across the now slightly warmed floor and the beast of a man followed intently, his head tilted while Ori's hands scratched backwards to grab something, anything, to defend himself. He stood to a full height as he grabbed a meatless bone on the floor, wondering shortly if it was the beasts previous companion or just that days lunch... Or both! However, as Ori finally stood on weakened legs, the man stepped closer with curiosity in his eyes and Ori swung the bone at him.

 

"You- you stay away now! Stay away! I'm warning you. I'm not afraid to use this." Ori shouted and growled in warning as he continued lopsidedly swinging the bone and the alpha tilted his head, thinking it some kind of challenge as he batted the bone with his hand and Ori held onto the meatless morsel like it was a life preserver. "I mean it! Just stay back - you - you beastly thing!"

 

The man ignored the warnings and Ori swung with purpose, hitting the alpha up the side of the head with the hefty bone. It was enough to cause the man to startle and step back for a moment, looking at Ori like he was a yapping puppy who had chewed up his favourite toy.

 

"You made a good selection lads!" One of the onlookers commented with a chortle and Ori looked at them for a brief moment before returning his glare to the alpha. "The beasty likes his playthings with a bit of fire."

 

Ori directed a growl at the 'beasty' as the men had described while the alpha made a move to grab the bone again, and once again receiving a strike from Ori and a laugh from the crowd. However, with all the chaos around him Ori soon found his attention breaking for a moment and the beast took it as his chance to finally smack the bone and grab Ori around the waist, pulling him like a prize toward a large sheltered and dark area. 

 

Ori fought back digging the heels of his now bare feet into the grey cemented dirt and kicking and scratching at the arms around his waist. He shouted and screamed and elbowed and even tried to bite the shoulder of the man that dragged him away. The last thing he saw were the men outside the cage snickering and walking away, leaving the beast to claim his prize.

 

Ori screamed again as he was finally dragged into the cave, until a firm hand planted over his mouth. Ori struggled, the rancid smelling appendage adding to his ill feeling stomach, but it was not enough to stop Ori biting down on a thick finger and grinning with joy when the alpha yelped and pulled his hand away. Ori tried scrambling toward the entrance and into the safety of the light again, but the beast was on him and spinning him so this time Ori was trapped to his firm and bare chest.

 

"Unhand me! Let go, you beast - you wretched alpha-" Ori hissed as he smacked at the mans chest and shoulder and anything he could reach with restrained arms, not listening to the concerned grunting and the man attempting to quiet Ori with gentle noises. "I swear to the god I'll lay my hand on you - Just let me go! Let go!" 

 

The beast continued to cling to Ori, using a reflective shattered mirror in his cave to look outside the shelter to see the last of Ori's voyeuristic captures disappear, obviously not pleased with the lack of sound and sight in the cage. Ori continued to struggle until he grew tired and settled, only then did the beast lay him down on the shelter floor and Ori closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

 

Nothing happened.

 

The looming presence passed and Ori opened his eyes to see the beast perched by the entrance of the cage, peering out and ears fixed on any sound that could be picked up, like a poised predator. Ori slowly sat up, adjusting his tattered cardigan and following the beasts sight.

 

"What are you?" Was all that fell out of Ori's mouth. In his own world he would ask _what are you called?_ or maybe even _how are you?_ if they were already introduced. This was not Ori's world though, and it felt wrong to think it that.

 

The man said nothing, looking back at Ori for a moment before returning to his position as the guardsman to the shelter. Only then did Ori see it.

 

A dark and discoloured mark on the mans side, a row of numbers and scan code as clear as the light itself. It was a tattoo, a stamp, a signature to the mans life. Ori had heard of alpha fighting rings, how could he not? They were on the news at every moment at how young men would be taken from their homes, taken off their medication and brought to their lowest form again, that had not been witnessed since the dark ages. Then they would fight, fight each other, fight fool hardy betas, fight animals, fight just about anything that the owners of the ring and their wealthy friends could place in front of them. Everyone has an engrained fear of something, for omegas it was alphas, for betas it is losing their loves to another, for alphas it was fighting rings. Ori's suspicions were confirmed when he saw a gated door on the far end of the shelter, tucked away behind a scrap of blanket and pillow. Beyond that small door was the fighting ring and beyond that the free world that the beast would never know.

 

It was strange though, for all Ori knew of the rings he did not know that the fighters could grow so old. Not old as in grey and wrinkled, just beyond the age of thirty. The man was clearly slightly older than that, and was littered with scars to insist some years of fighting. Even the cage was larger than what Ori had imagined from all those articles he skimmed and broadcast he placed a lazy ear to. Furthermore, why did this alpha get to receive an omega? One that the men clearly intended for the alpha to mate with, a 'plaything' Ori recalled. Why was this alpha so applauded?

 

Ori tilted his head to look closer at the inscription then saw a set of letters.

 

"Dwalin?" 

 

The man looked back at him, recognition in his eyes. Ori realised what he said and swallowed.

 

"Dwalin? That is your name?" Ori probed and the man - Dwalin - grunted and repeated the word with a nod.

 

Ori paused for a moment, fiddling with the loose threads of his cardigan that had been pulled by the bolts of the back of the van that carried him here.

 

"Do you know where I am?"

 

The man said nothing.

 

"Can you tell me my captors names?"

 

The man said nothing.

 

"Do you know what they want?"

 

Nothing.

 

"Why did they bring me to you?"

 

Silence.

 

Ori sighed, wondering if the man knew any language beyond his own name and beyond the orders the men would shout at him. Ori yanked a thread from his cardigan and rubbed his face.

 

"I'm Ori, by the way. Ori Rihansen." 

 

The man finally turned to him, a small smile on his lips as he bowed his head and Ori wondered further just how much the man knew.

 

It didn't take Ori long to decide to go to bed, his body weak and sore from the day and his mind exhausted by the whole situation. Inside the cave there were blankets and cloths constructed into a makeshift bed, one that had clearly been there for many, many years. Ori crawled over to them and shifted half of the pile to the opposite side of the cave, Dwalin did not look back when he rearranged the cave as he was busy circling the perimeter of the cave in an attempt to get exercise. Ori could not deny that he had watched the larger man do his stretches and his run, as muscles shifted beneath his thin shirt and the musky sweat he produced seemed to heighten Ori's interest. It would be wrong to say he was handsome, not in the ways that magazines and television would depict, but there was something about Dwalin that Ori found inexplicably attractive, perhaps the gentle disposition? Or his muscles? Each answer was as vague as the last.

 

Ori pushed all these thoughts from his mind and decided to just settle in his new bed, wondering just how he would escape as his slim frame touched the cold floor, and his bones seemed to lock with the rough bits of stone. He closed his eyes and pretended to be at home, safe, in his bed and with Dori down stairs watching his later night quiz shows and drinking his sweet smelling tea. Ori shivered from the cold before exhaustion took over and drove him to something resembling a peaceful sleep.

 

Dwalin noticed when the man was finally asleep and stopped his exercise, cleaning himself with the cold bucket of water left at the side of his cage before going into the cave. Dwalin shuffled into the cave, hesitant not to wake his fellow prisoner. Dwalin also noticed the way the small omega shivered in his sleep, trying to adjust to the cold of the floor and the concrete arches around them.

 

Dwalin's brow furrowed before he grabbed three thick blankets from his own pile and draped them over the smaller figure, he then returned to his own corner and rotated on the spot. He sighed once he had flopped down on the single blanket and closed his eyes, picturing nothing but a blank cage and cement walls.

 

 

\----

 

 

Dori remained still and solemn as the police reported to him what they believe happened to his brother. He had reported young Ori's absence the moment after he had been due to return, but never showed up at his eldest brothers home. The police had been uninterested at first, saying he probably got wrapped up with friends or didn't catch the right bus. However, when Dori said he was an unmated and rather solitary omega, the police were on the case as fast than anyone could say 'useless', for that's what they were.

 

All they could tell him, and show him from the bus stops security footage, was a gang of men leaping out of the back of a van, grabbing his little brother, and driving away. The police could not say if they were alpha or omega or beta from the footage, but Dori could tell by the sheer force and brutality they exerted on his little brother. 

 

Nori flew into a rage, ordering the police to find his brother. Who smoothly cooled him off with the statement that they were doing 'everything in their power' a typical line for cases like these. All they said was to look out for notes or calls from the gang to see if they wanted ransom, unlikely from the poverty the family were in. Or if they were interested in anything else from the family in return for their boy, again unlikely with Dori's most valuable possession being a tea pot and Nori's being the chain of his father he wore around his neck.

 

Dori remained a the dining table for the longest time, sipping tea and thinking of his young brother that was lost. Lost to him and lost to the world, and Dori feared he would never see him again. Nori was sat opposite him, drumming his thumbs nervously on his mug before he slammed it against the table and stood.

 

"Why are we just sat here? We need to go find our boy." Nori declared and Dori sighed, his head hanging low.

 

"What do you think we should do?" Dori asked sarcastically. "Call the army and declare a hunt? Our problems do not matter to them Nori, there is nothing we can do."

 

"That sounds like the words of someone who's given up."

 

Dori snorted, shaking his head again as he ran his hands over his tea cup.

 

"No, they're the words of someone who is honest. I do not deter you from looking, Nori. But do not expect to find him so soon."

 

Nori watched his brother for another moment before stomping out of the dining room and upstairs to find his phone, if Dori had given up hope then their must be another somewhere who would help him.

 

 

\----

 

 

When Ori woke, he was alone. He was alone and a little bit too warm, he didn't smell particularly well either and his copper curls were beginning to stick to his neck and forehead. Ori sat up slowly, noticing the large alpha curled up protectively in the corner, snoring deeply and shoulders set solidly, even in sleep the large man could not escape the dark and cold that surrounded them.

 

Ori carefully got up, moving in slow and silent steps as he tiptoed toward the entrance of the shelter, scanning the area before stepping outside. It was safe to say that even during the day - was it the day? He was so unsure - the cage was still slightly dark but their was a skylight above, covered in steel bars and dirt. It was hard to see the rising light of the sun above. Ori realised then that he had taken advantage of everything when he was beyond these walls. The simple coolness of a summer breeze and the gentle pour of the spring rain, just the feeling of fresh air on his skin was something he didn't know he would miss. Until it was all gone.

 

"Getting adjusted to your new home?" A voice called and Ori looked over to see a tall and pale man grinning at him, the door was partially open as a guard entered the cage, batons and a taser lining his belt and buckets filled with food in his hands which he dumped into a troth looking bowl. 

 

"Yeah, you could say that. It's like adjusting to having no kidney's after a night out or being thrown into a cage with an uncontrollable alpha." Ori replied sarcastically and the man smiled still.

 

"Well, since you'll be staying we should get to know each other." The man said before taking off his dark rimmed hat and bowing. "My name is Smaug, what's yours beautiful?"

 

"Eat shit." Ori stated in response and the door slammed shut when the guard was finished filling the troth and the tall man - Smaug, Ori would always remember - laughed a bit.

 

"Now, now, baby. Play nice." Smaug teased. "It matters not what your bitch name is, my men found your wallet in your bag. Lovely little ID you have, Ori Rihansen. Omega born, Just turned twenty-one this year, address is thirty two Erebor Way, an honour student. Parents deceased, brothers living."

 

"Shut up." Ori hissed but the man continued anyway.

 

"We're pulling your health and personal records now, we need to make sure you're healthy. You'll be with us a long time."

 

"How so?"

 

"Lets just say I have a lot of fingers, and I have shoved them in a lot of pies." Smaug smirked and Ori frowned. "Now, can I get you anything to make you more comfortable? Towels? Lube? Any certain foods you like?"

 

"How about a key?" Ori asked with a smirk and Smaug snorted.

 

"Not in the options, baby face." Smaug replied and leaned on the bars. "Now, stop flirting and tell me what you want?"

 

Ori frowned as he thought for a moment, he didn't want anything from this man, or from his men. However, he felt disgusting in these clothes and he was bordering on the tired and disgraceful feeling after not bathing for a day.

 

"I want a shower and clean clothes." Ori stated, he would not use his manners with these men, not one please or thank you would pass those lips.

  
"Hmm, I can get you some fresh rags, but we don't really have showers here." Smaug stated and Ori could see his eyes glint with a sadistic nature as he moved around the side of the cage and Ori followed the walk with his eyes fixed. "However, we can wash you in the same way we wash the beast, that will be acceptable."

 

Ori had only a moment before Smaug his a tank at the side of the cage and a jet of cold water rushed, knocking the small man off his feet. Ori tried to brace himself against the freezing jet spray and curled in one himself, he gasped and coughed as water entered his lungs and his ears were muffled from the sound of rushing water. However, it was only another moment later before the water stopped hitting him but the sound still rushed past his ears.

 

Ori looked up to see the alpha - Dwalin - hunched protectively over him, eyes scrunched closed and face knotted in pain as the lashing water hit his back and kept it from Ori. The small man watched up in slight awe at the alpha who was facing unimaginable pain in his spine just to keep Ori from harm, Ori did not know if it was born from alpha instinct to keep his omega safe or born from possible affection for the omega, it didn't matter either way and Ori had not the time to dwell on it before the jet stopped and Dwalin let out a relieved groan.

 

"That's enough cleaning for one day. If you get cheeky with me again, I'll turn more than the hose on you!" Smaug called to the pair and Dwalin panted roughly, trying to fight away the pain in his back and Ori's fingers twitched to help but he was still in shock. "Dwalin, be sure to keep your bitch under control."

 

Dwalin grunted in distant understanding and Ori wondered if Dwalin knew English, he certainly wasn't born here so surely he was a citizen once. He must of lost his way to speak it long ago after years of being beaten and shoved out to fight in a ring.

 

 

Smaug made his guard toss a pair of dirtied shirt and trousers through the bars, a smirk on his face as the settled on the solid floor.

 

"Try those on runt, and I'll be back tomorrow." Smaug shouted before gathering his guards and continuing down the hall. A heavy sounding door slammed and clicked and the two were alone again.

 

Ori crawled out from beneath Dwalin, shaking off his damp curls as he did. He hurried across the room and claimed his clothes and pulled off his old ones, uncaring of his nakedness suddenly, and tugged on the cleaner pair. Ori looked over to see the alpha struggled to stand, stumbling twice in a row. He also saw the deep red tint that now stained his back as he growled and fell for another time, punching the floor as he grumbled and growled about weakness.

 

"Hey, hey it's alright," Ori called as he ran to his side, helping him up gently. "Jus - Just take it slowly."

 

Dwalin finally gained his footing with Ori's hands hovering around him, hoping to keep him upright, a small smile spread over the omegas lips and patted the alphas chest carefully.

 

"There see, all better." Ori said softly and looked up to see Dwalin watching him tenderly and Ori realised that Dwalin was ridiculous tall, even if he was short himself the large man was at least two heads taller. Ori took a step back and cleared his throat. "You understood that man?"

 

Dwalin nodded.

 

"And I heard you talking to yourself just now. Can you speak to me?"

 

Dwalin remained still, rubbing his knuckles nervously. Ori watched him for a moment, the alphas lips parted and closed for a moment before Ori continued.

 

"Can you understand me?"

 

"Aye." A thick mix of Scottish and something unadjusted came from between the mans lips, it did not shock Ori in the slightest that someone so ruggedly big was from a southern land. 

 

"Why did you not speak with me last night?" Ori asked and Dwalin shifted from foot to foot and the smaller man watched him.

 

"I did not want to scare ye'." The man replied and Ori gave a humourless laugh.

 

"I am more afraid of someone who does not speak than one who does!" Ori replied, his voice a little too high for his liking.

 

"Sorry, I did not mean."

 

Ori paused for a moment and looked at the man before smiling slightly.

 

"Will you talk to me now?"

 

"Aye, but not here." Dwalin stated, he marched across the room and grabbed a handful of food from the troth and then walked to the shelter, Ori stood and slowly looked out of the cage again before following him in.

 

Dwalin spoke in very short sentences, he had been captured when he was sixteen and trained to fight, taken off his suppressants, shoved into the ring and forced to fight for his life against older alphas or some his own age. He told Ori that at that age it was vital part for an alphas development to stay on the suppressant pills, it helped them mature at a slower pace and not get overwhelming large and not disconnect from their minds, as it was during a vital time in school too. Dwalin had been taken at that age at the instruction of his father, his mother had died long ago and his father had no way to raise the two sons he had. Balin, who was of legal age was taken by business men to give him an apprenticeship, and Dwalin was taken by the fighting ring, promising their father to make him into a soldier. He had survived longer than any alpha had in the rings and even if Ori was impressed as well as disgusted by this fact, Dwalin felt numb at the fact and he tried not to think much about it. It was his only way to survive and maybe one day be released. Ori doubted that would ever happen, but Dwalin still had hope. Dwalin also spoke of the fights, how every few days or sometimes weeks when he expected it or not, the gate in the shelter would open to reveal moving bars, he would kneel by the opening and wait for a siren call on the other side, then he would be pushed through, on the other side his opponent would be in the ring. A feral alpha just like himself and they would fight in front of an audience. The days of the fights would alternate, that way the police would never become suspicious of the activities at the building and would never know when a fight was anyway when it was so erratic.

 

"And me? Why did they bring me here?" Ori asked after a moment of silence and when he knew Dwalin was finished telling his story. The larger man looked sadly at the smaller, before sighing.

 

"The - They wish to breed me." 

 

Ori felt his heart sink and his eyes widen like they two were attached with an invisible string.

 

"A new program I head the guards sayin' once. Project Future." Dwalin kept talking and he noticed Ori's sudden distress but kept going, he didn't want any lies. Not here, not between them. "They want to secure fighters in a more efficient and secret way. Myself and two others were selected for the process, a trial period, they called it."

 

"No... no!" Ori shouted as he got to his feet. "No, no, fuck this whole place! I control who I breed with and when I breed! I get that choice, I make that choice-"

 

"I know, I know, please Ori sit down, let's just talk." Dwalin tried to sooth but Ori was becoming erratic, blame it on the news he just received or the suddenly shrinking room around them. 

 

"No, I will not talk! And you - how do you feel so calm about this when they are asking the same of you!? I am a free man and I demand-!"

 

Dwalin shrugged a single shoulder, hands going to the barcode on his lower back, and rubbing it.

 

"I cannot speak of being free." 

 

Ori stopped in his shouting and angry movements before settling again, looking into the mans sad, soft blue eyes. He sighed and sat with a soft apologetic frown on his face.

 

"I'm sorry." Ori said gently before rubbing a hand over his face. "I - I just will not and do not wish to be mated."

 

"I understand, I was not going to force ye', not at all."

 

"You were not?"

 

"Of course not."

 

Ori watched him for a moment before extending his hand toward the large man, and Dwalin looked at it for a moment before looking back at Ori's face.

 

"Do you promise?" Ori asked and Dwalin raised a brow. "No matter what happens, how much they press and plead, you will not."

 

"I will not, I swear to ye'." Dwalin replied before nudging his hand at Ori's, they pressed palms together and watched the point of connection and though Ori was aiming more for a handshake but this certainty worked too.

 

Ori found that as time passed, weeks turned to months he believed or it could have been a few hours, he became more adjusted to the cage. He knew how to annoy Smaug but saved it most of the time, he did not want a repeat of the incident of the hose. He knew the patterns of the guards marched and the ones who had a certain fondness for omegas, and would do anything Ori asked if he begged and fluttered his lashes enough, no one ever went further with him though as they all thought he was mated with their top fighter. He knew Dwalin's emotions and tempers, when he was happy and welcoming company he would stick with Ori all day and they would just sit and talk for hours, and when Dwalin was agitated he placed Ori on top of the shelter out of harms reach and then lay waste to everything in their cage, Ori used to be fearful of these moments but as time passed he knew Dwalin respected and even liked him enough not to cause harm to him, even putting him out of the way so he didn't accidentally get hurt.

 

Ori was laying on top of the shelter some days later, staring up the sky through the above light and arms splayed at his side, imaging himself flying home to his brothers. Maybe Dwalin could come with him? Maybe they could fly somewhere new together?

 

Ori was pulled from his daydreaming when Dwalin approached, sliding his hand across the concrete roof of the shelter. Ori looked over at him with a smile and Dwalin showed him an assortment of nuts and fruits in his large hands.

 

"Eat. Make you strong." Dwalin commented and left the foot at Ori's side before ducking into their shelter, Ori smiled for a moment before tucking into the small snacks, before looking back up at the sky.

 

"Thinking of home, baby doll?" Smaug asked cheerily and Ori turned to glare at him.

 

"Or I was thinking about your anticipated demise." Ori replied and Smaug laughed happily.

 

"Aw, what a charmer." Smaug stated and Ori rolled his eyes, looking back at the sky. "How is the breeding coming along?"

 

"Hot and heavy." Ori replied with an eye roll that Smaug couldn't see from his distance and he smirked.

 

"Excellent. Can I get you something to make you more comfortable?" Smaug asked, he asked it every damn time he came to the cage, always joking and always with some twisted play up his sleeve.

 

"Yes actually, I want showers. No more hoses, I want warm water, a bucket full and a rag to wash with, and soap. Not for myself but for Dwalin." Ori stated and Smaug snorted.

 

"Asking a little much aren't we?" Smaug replied and Ori hummed as he sat up.

 

"Perhaps, and then perhaps you're asking too much of a captured man to bare children to a savage alpha? Perhaps that man will not bare you any unless you treat him, and his alpha, with an inch of respect. Perhaps that is asking a little much."

 

The next morning, a bucket of warm water, a rag, and a bar of soap was left by the gate. Ori smirked when he saw it and then called Dwalin over to help him lift it, it was a larger bucket after all and he had lost both weight and muscle tone since being in the cage, and beside, Dwalin had muscle to spare.

 

When Dwalin had pulled the bucket into their shelter, Ori couldn't help but notice the hesitant look the man was giving the bucket and its content, he shifted nervously around the thing and grunted, unknowingly, at it in clear warning. Ori knew that Dwalin was not well in tune with water, unless it was coming from a jet hose and knocking the scars and scabs from his body.

 

"Come on, do not fear it."

 

"I fear nothing." Dwalin replied, his voice laced with slight worry, and Ori hummed before taking his hands and dipping them in the water and rubbing them gently with the bar of soap, watching as the dirt melted away and revealed calloused hands.

 

"See, nothing to fear." Ori repeated and Dwalin hummed, dipping his hands hesitantly back in as Ori rubbed them softly with rag and soap. 

 

"Sit, face that way." Ori instructed as he directed Dwalin to face the wall of their shelter and the large man did with no questions asked and Ori carefully dipped the rag into the water as Dwalin settled. Even when he was sat the man was obnoxiously larger than he was, and Ori had to go on his knees to reach the top of his shoulder as he began to carefully was the alphas strong back. Dwalin grunted slightly when he first started, wincing away at the touch of water and Ori stopped, waited and then continued.

 

"Is this alright?" Ori asked and Dwalin grunted as he scrubbed his back gently, making him raise his arms to get under his pits and at his sides. He scrubbed the mans arms a bit rougher from the years of dirt being built up in the hair, and then around the folds of his shoulders and behind his neck. He then cupped his hands to get water from the bucket, opening them over each of Dwalin's shoulder and rinsing the suds away.

 

"Alright, now turn to face me."

 

Dwalin did as he was asked and Ori smiled softly as he began to lather up the hair on Dwalin's chest, being careful around the scars as he scrubbed the front of his neck and then down to his abdomen. Dwalin grunted in pleasure and leaned back on his hands as Ori scrubbed his legs, working his way up to the perimeter of his shorts and then back down, telling Dwalin that if he wanted to scrub there then he'll have to do it himself. Dwalin grunted in understanding before Ori washed his face and then his feet, the larger mans leg twitched when Ori scrubbed the pads of his feet and he chuckled slightly, making Ori smile despite it all. Ori repeated cupping his hands and wiping the man down, making sure he didn't have any soap left on his skin in fear of a rash and then Ori leaned back, smiling at his handiwork.

 

"There we are, all handsome." Ori admired and Dwalin smiled lopsidedly before Ori shuffled away, intent on giving himself his own bath in the left over water. Ori stripped off his dirtied shirt and hesitated a moment before pulling off his trousers, leaving himself completely naked. Dwalin has definitely not expected the sudden display as the smaller man kneeled by the second bucket Dwalin had carried in and began splashing water on his face. Dwalin was treated with the sight of Ori hunched over the bucket, arse bare and for all to see and Dwalin found something stirring too, something primitive and long forgotten. Dwalin followed and grunted, shuffling behind Ori and pulling the rag from Ori's hands and using it to rub at the boys back, as Ori had done a moment ago. 

 

Ori hummed and tilted his head back as Dwalin pressed his bare chest to Ori's back, intent on scrubbing his neck and back. However, Ori couldn't control himself as his hands moved backwards, grabbing Dwalin's hips and pulling him closer to his back, letting the alpha move the rag and his hands up and down his body.

 

"Mmm, Dwalin." Ori moaned and the moment he found Dwalin's mouth on his neck, he was lost. He was gasping and clinging to him, whispering his name as he pushed back into him, he ran his arms up to hoop behind the larger mans neck and turned his head to kiss at his cheek. He whispered Dwalin's name against his cheek and neck and his fingers clung to him desperately.

 

"Dwalin, oh Dwalin - _ufh_ \- Dwalin." Ori repeated like a mantra as Dwalin's hands sunk lower, from his chest downwards and rested on his thighs and only then did Ori realise what he was doing and pull away with a gasp, Dwalin tried clinging to him, kissing his neck and jaw, but when Ori sounded distressed he quickly let go, scrambling backwards himself as Ori hid against the wall, covering his body and breathing deeply.

 

"Thi - This is what they want, it's what they've always wanted." Ori panted as he grabbed the soap bar, splitting it open to find a small frothing pull inside. A pheromone supplement. Ori snarled and ripped the pill out before throwing it in the water, watching it dissolve with hatred in his eyes. He though for a moment - He thought for one stupid moment that maybe Dwalin liked him, liked him for who he is. He was wrong, it was the pill, it was stirring the alphas natural instinct to take and mate and want. It wasn't Ori, it was never just Ori.

 

Dwalin struggled to push his aching cock down, while Ori was still quite calm in the corner, breathing deeply.

 

"O - Ori, I didn't mean to d-"

 

"I know you didn't."

 

"No, Ori, not like that I mean -"

  
"It's in your instict."

 

"Aye, but it wasn't like that, I really do li -"

 

"I'm going to sit on the roof." Ori said as he pulled on his trousers, leaving his damp shirt on the floor.

 

"Ca - Can I join ye?"

 

"No." Ori stated simply before he was walking our of the shelter and climbing on top of it, while Dwalin remained in the cave. He leaned against the cold wall and sighed, closing his eyes and trying to think of something to say or do to get Ori to trust him again. He had promised, all that time ago that he would not harm Ori or try to mate Ori. But then what the hell was that just now? He didn't understand why he couldn't control himself, he knew that when he was with Ori he felt a certain flutter in his heart or a shudder in his gut but that was it. Nothing more. He feared now that he would never trust himself again, or worse, Ori would never trust him again.

 

 

\----

 

 

Nori paced. It had been five months - five months! - Since his baby brother had disappeared and he had not heard a single word from his kidnappers, they did not want money or an exchange for a valuable item that they owned. Nori knew what they wanted Ori for, they wanted him as a god damn broodmare! A little birth machine for an alpha somewhere, maybe they sold him? Maybe he was dead? Maybe he was alive? He did not know, there was no evidence and even the police were stumped.

 

"Perhaps he just ran away?" The detective offered. "He was a young lad, probably staged his kidnapping so he didn't have to tell you, you know how omegas are."

 

That conversation ended rather abruptly and Nori was released on bail with only a warning to not attack another officer again.

 

"Aliens did it!" Some would cry.

 

"An underground drug ring!" Others would add.

 

Each offering was as non resultant and pointless as the last and Nori was beginning to give up hope, and Dori had been his only support in that, he had helped Nori put up signs and cast news reports and talk to police and find tracks and get tracker dogs. His eldest brother had always been the rock of the family, but now he was as strong as a mountain and Nori loved him for it.

 

Nori knew he was on the trail now, he had seen multiple clips of the van that snatched his brother away and he had now formed a solid path leading to an abandoned warehouse in the northern valley, only problem was, he had run out of his own money to give a detective to come with him and he had no way to earn some quickly.

 

"Nori, I have counted the days since Ori's last heat, in nine days he will heat again and if he is not barring by now, then he certainly will be by the end of that date." Dori commented one day in the kitchen as he gazed at a calender.

 

"Are you giving me a deadline, brother?" Nori asked and Dori smiled a bit.

 

"I am giving you incentive, bring him home Nori." Dori slid the last coins he had saved up over the past years and Nori looked at them with wide eyes before looking up at his brother. The grey haired man smiled and nodded, his eyes trusting and Nori hugged him before promising to bring their boy back safe, then he gathered the coins and ran out of the door, ready to get his brother back.

 

 

\----

 

 

_It's raining._

 

Ori thought as he lounged on the shelters roof, it had been three days since the incident with Dwalin and he realised that his body was shifting, readying itself to go into heat. Readying itself for mating and maybe a child at the end. Ori huffed and sat up straight, rubbing his aching back for a moment before hearing a loud rattle and the cheering and shouting. He moved quickly and hopped off the top of the shelter and going in, he saw Dwalin pacing, his hands shaking and his whole faced looking pale.

 

"Dwalin, what's going on?" Ori asked and stepped closer to the man who was still pacing nervously. "What's happening?!"

 

Dwalin finally looked up and took Ori gently by the hand, leading him away from the small gate in the cement wall.

 

"Ori, stay here. I need ye to stay here." Dwalin ordered and Ori frowned in confusion. 

 

"Why? What is it, Dwalin?" Ori asked before he heard another metallic rattle and the cheering increased.

 

"Just stay here, whatever happens. Promise?" Dwalin raised a flat hand up, his palm facing Ori and the small man pressed his own to it and stretched his fingers gently against it.

 

"Promise." The smaller man agreed and Dwalin laced their fingers and nudged them with his face and traced his lip over Ori's knuckles before the bars rose in the newly revealed gate and Dwalin quickly turned and tunnelled through the gap before it snapped behind him once he was through. Ori dropped to his knees and peeked through with a gasp as he saw crowds of rowdy looking people gathered cheering and Dwalin and another muscled alpha circling each other, snarling and baring teeth at each other like wild dogs.

 

It was the other alpha, the name Azog engraved on his skin, that moved first, charging at Dwalin and swinging his fists until he hit the large mans shoulder and sent him stumbling across the sand, clutching his limp shoulder.

 

"Dwalin!" Ori shouted, but it was drowned out by the cheering of an enthusiastic crowd. Ori quickly looked around for anything that could prop the gate open so he could get through, he quickly found a tin cup and tried to lift the bars upwards of the mechanical door. It did nothing.

 

Dwalin threw Azog to the floor and threw some punches before he was thrown off with a punch to the jaw.

 

Ori tied sheets around the bars and pulled, hoping the added length would bend the bars so he could get through. The sheets ripped. It did nothing.

 

Dwalin snarled and scramble back, tackling Azog as he approached him again and tried to wind his arms around the alphas back to pin him and lay waste to the man, but he was shouldered off. 

 

Ori hit the bars with his opened hand and then his fist, which throbbed for a moment afterwards and then tried using his legs to kick at the bars. It did nothing.

 

Azog looked up from wrestling with Dwalin and tilted his head when he saw something moving inside his opponents cage, he jumped off Dwalin and marched toward it. Dwalin snarled past his bleeding lip and chased him, throwing him back when the other alpha came too close to his door and his omega. 

 

Ori tried pulling the bars up with his hands, hanging to the top of the wall in the cave in hopes of pulling it and himself up. It did nothing. That was until he saw a chain just beyond the bars on the arena side of the gate.

 

Dwalin threw Azog again, hoping to tire him and then go in for the kill. However, he was distracted when he saw Ori pressed up against the bar and was bitten harshly the torso, sending him falling over and clutching at the bite while Azog paraded around the ring with a smug look.

 

Ori squeezed his arms through the bar and reached for the chain, watching and calling Dwalin's name as Azog circled on him and began kicking him. Ori pulled the chain and the door went up, fast enough that his arm would've been disconnected if he kept it there. Ori picked up his tin cup and ran into the stadium, the audience froze in confusion as Ori threw the cup at the large man, hitting him in the head and making it bounce off.

 

"Leave him be!" Ori shouted and Azog turned, searching for his new foe. However, when he saw it was a scrappy omega, one with fists raised ready for a fight and a scowl on its face, he laughed. Then, wiping his drooling mouth with the back of his hand, quickly approached the omega. Ori swung his fist forward and was able to get a hit in before the man grabbed his arm on the second punch and threw him across the floor. 

 

Ori fought him back and Dwalin lifted his head, face now bleeding and his insides aching from the kicks. However, when he saw Azog picking Ori up by the hair and throwing him on his front, something dark woke up inside Dwalin. Something primitive and dangerous. Something powerful.

 

Azog laughed as Ori scrambled backwards before he flopped over him, pinning him in place with his arms for a moment before moving to unbuckle his own trousers, laughing sickly as the omega squirmed. Ori snarled and growled, hissing and spitting at the man above him as he fought against him, slamming his hands into his shoulders and kicking him as well as he could.

 

A moment passed and the man was gone and Ori looked up to see Dwalin, as big as he'd ever been, practically roaring into the mans face before throwing him across the ring, making the man hit the wall with the force and sending him dizzy. Dwalin growled and snarled and Ori stood and touched the mans shoulders and he startled for a moment before seeing Ori and softened, kissing and licking at the younger mans face in relief and feeling complete.

 

Azog charged at them and Dwalin shoved Ori behind his back before pouncing at the man teeth bared and aimed at his throat.

 

"Dwalin, no!" Ori called, but it was too late. Dwalin ripped his head to the side, taking with it a chunk of Azog's throat. The small omega felt great relief that he had done so with Azog's back to him, but then the stench of blood hit him and Ori was holding his middle about ready to be sick.

 

The crowd cheered and many cried out about their loss of money from their gambling, Dwalin stumbled back in a daze his face and chest covered in blood that was not his own and he seemed to be patting himself in search of wounds to find the source of the blood, but none came.

 

Ori ran to the larger man, and pulled him. The larger man hunching down so the crowd couldn't see his face as Ori crawled back into their shelter and Dwalin quickly followed, the gate shutting behind them and the thick metal falling once more, sealing them in silence. 

 

The alpha was sat rubbing the blood away from his face, looking at his hands and making a distressed sound before trying to rub the blood away on the walls, on the floor, anywhere he could reach.

 

"Dwalin, Dwalin, please, please calm down." Ori pleaded as he got to his knees and Dwalin threw himself into the omegas arms, weak and afraid and clinging to his waist, hands clutching his now bloodstained shirt like it was an anchor.

 

"Wha - What happened, Ori?" Dwalin pleaded and Ori hushed him, petting his head gently and Dwalin shivered so uncertain and afraid. "I - I don't know what happened. Why is there blood on me? It's not my blood, Ori! It's not my blood!"

 

"I know, I know it's not. But you won, you won the fight, it's alright. You're safe now." Ori hushed and Dwalin made a sobbing sound, burying his face in Ori's shirt and wiping the unnamed blood away.

 

That night, Dwalin wouldn't let Ori out of his arms He fell asleep as clean as he could be, Ori had sponged the blood from his face and hands and they both changed their shirts and now he was curled against Dwalin's chest, his fingers tracing comforting patterns on his biceps. Dwalin, in his sleep, was holding Ori's head to his neck, not willing to let him go again. 

 

Dwalin had spoken when he came into his senses once more, he had killed alphas in fights, it was a requirement for the game. However, he had never killed so brutally, he always killed his opponents as humanely as he could, a snap to the neck or a sharp punch to the chest to stop their hearts quickly. He had never caused bloodshed, he was expected to, to make a show of it for the bloodthirsty audience or to heighten the alphas senses when they went into the arena after him. He could practically hear Smaug laughing, musing how even the most noble could be broken over omega influence, but he wasn't like that. Was he? 

 

Dwalin curled around Ori tighter, and Ori snuggled into his shoulder like it was something so natural. He had never believed in mating or even love until now, until he spent the night in this alphas arms and felt the warm muscle of the man pressed to him. Lord help him. What ever could he do about this feeling? 

 

When Ori woke the next day, Dwalin was already awake and at the outside part of the cage, stretching and exercising his muscles, in preparation of something Ori did not understand or even think he wanted to know. Ori picked himself up from the floor, ruffling his hair into place as he stepped out of the shelter. Dwalin stopped in his work out to look up at the small man who was approaching him with arms outstretched and smile on his face.

 

"No." Dwalin said as he stepped back and Ori stopped in his tracks. "Please don't, I'm dangerous."

 

"You're not dangerous." Ori sighs in reply and steps closer again. "Not from where I'm standing anyway."

 

"I - I need to keep ye safe, and that means keeping ye from me." Dwalin stated and took a step back before Ori could take one towards him. "Please, just -"

 

"I'm not leaving you, Dwalin." Ori replied and finally got close enough to wrap his arms around the mans neck. "I'd never leave you."

 

Ori pressed his lips to the skin of Dwalin's neck and giggled when he heard the taller man let out a relieved sigh as he stashed his face in Ori's shoulder and breathed deeply. A small smile on his lips as he did.

 

Everything was fine until another three days later, when everything turned back into a disaster and Ori knew then that if he did not escape, then he would be stuck here forever.

 

Ori had stretched when he woke and padded across the cold floor to get some food, it had been an unexpectedly quiet few days and alpha and omega had not been distributed in what felt like weeks and he was getting rather comfortable in his environment. However, every happy moment must have its come down.

 

Ori bent over and picked from fruit from the troth, rubbing the apple off on his shirt before he heard and loud crash and looked up, it was only then that he saw the gates being pulled open by guards, dressed in protective suits and carrying chains and batons. Behind the bars, watching the invasion, was Smaug, grinning like a madman and a electric whip in his hands. Ori went wide eyed and dropped his food.

 

"Dwalin!" Ori shouted desperately as he ran back toward the shelter, but was quickly tackled from behind by guards. However, the shout seemed to work as Dwalin charged out of the shelter, realised what was happening and drew his fists up to punch Ori's captor square in the jaw and send him reeling backward.

 

Dwalin snarled and growled as he pushed Ori behind his back, slowly walking them both toward the shelter where he thought it was safe. Ori glared at the guards too as they flipped their batons out and showed them threateningly.

 

"Now, now, boys! Be civil. We only want to take Ori out for a bit." Smaug called, leaning coolly against the cage and sipping some lemonade he had in his glass.

 

"First ye'll have to fight me." Dwalin snarled and shoved Ori further toward the cave to keep him safe.

 

"Oh please beasty. We all know how protective you've been recently." Smaug said with a roll of his eyes. "Change the fucking record, it's getting boring now."

 

Dwalin only snarled and Smaug huffed again.

 

"Fine we'll play the same old record." Smaug replied before whipping out a gun and shooting Dwalin in the leg. Dwalin fell to the ground and Ori screamed in shock, the feeling deepening when he saw the tasselled needle of a tranquilliser implanted in the alphas thigh. Dwalin growled as he pulled the needle out angrily, a small spot of blood appearing on his trousers as he did. 

 

The guards took this moment of shock and grabbed Ori, pulling him toward the exit of the cage. Ori fought back, shoving and scratching at their hands and cursing them. Dwalin gave chase on heavy legs and was shot again with another tranquillise in the chest, which he growled at again and yanked out, he wobbled forward and the world seemed to slow, his hearing becoming fuzzy and his eyes blurring as he chased his omega.

 

"Dwalin!" Ori shouted again and Dwalin swore the voice was repeating and slow inside his head as took another tranquilliser bullet to the neck, lazy and confused hands fumbled and pulled it out before he dropped to his knees and swayed. He got up again, he would not lose the only reason for his happiness. He refused!

 

"Dwalin!" The distant and fuzzy voice shouted his name and Dwalin tried to steady himself to his feet, he limped after the slow moving guards now and landed a solid punch to one but as he turned a tranquilliser hit him in the side. This one felt numb in his skin and he tried to pull it out but he couldn't find it.

 

"Ori." Dwalin whispered as he saw the small man fight back against the guards, trying to grab a gun wielding mans arm. Dwalin turned and snarled at the man before another needle hit him in the ribs. He fell to his knees. He tried crawling desperately toward the smaller man, hand outward to reach him as his arm was hit with another dart.

 

The world was slow and beginning to blur completely. He whispered Ori's name again before getting only to his knees and falling backwards, a darkness taking over him as he turned his head and saw Smaug smirking and Ori being pulled out of the large steel doors that secured the hallway outside his cage.

 

He fell unconscious.

 

When Ori woke, he was instantly alert of his surroundings. He had not realised he had been knocked out until now, finding himself strapped to a medical bed and the stark bright lights above surrounding him and hurting his eyes.

 

"Ah, good to see you, sleeping beauty." Smaug commented as he came into Ori's vision from above, the smaller man spat at him in response and bared his teeth.

 

"Now, now, don't be like this. We only need to do some assessments and then we'll put you right back with your alpha. Now, spread your legs for the doctor."

 

"Get fucked." Ori replied to nothing in the mans sentence, only the presence of him wanted to make Ori rip off his own skin.

 

"Oh baby, that's what I'm trying to do for you." Smaug replied and Ori scowled at him. "This would go much quicker if we find out when you're in heat."

 

Ori looked at the man with a furrowed brow and shook his head.

 

"Is that it? I can tell you whe-"

 

"Yeah, but I can't trust you." Smaug replied as he brushed Ori's hair with his fingers. "Oh, but I wish I could."

 

"Three days."

 

"Excuse me?"

 

"My heat is in three days, you wanted to know and I told you."

 

Smaug looked over at the doctor in the room and he looked at his chart before looking back at Smaug and nodding.

 

"He's correct, his temperature and body mass movement says as much. Three to four days." The doctor states and Ori turns his glare back on Smaug who is smiling.

 

"Such a trustworthy omega." Smaug stated with a nod. "You'll be back to your cage soon, as soon as you give the doctor more details. Smaug was gone then and Ori was lifted into a sitting position in the medical bed and the doctor smiled kindly at him before asking him questions about his heat and his past medication for it.

 

When Ori was finished talking he was escorted back to the cage, he noticed that Dwalin was no longer on the cage floor and he panicked. He ran into the cage as the guards opened and shut the door behind him. He ran frantically into the shelter where Dwalin was laid, all needles removed and sprawled out on his back. Ori gasped and ran to him, kneeling at his side.

 

"Dwalin, wake up." Ori pleaded as he gently shook the mans shoulder, when there was no response he whimpered and pressed his head to the mans chest, listening to his faint heartbeat. "Please, please wake up."

 

Dwalin didn't wake up and Ori became more desperate in his shaking before curling up on his chest and hoping he would wake up soon. When Ori woke from a nap he had unexpectedly took, Dwalin was his normal colour again and was feeling much cooler under Ori's hand so Ori gently shook his chest and he murmured in his sleep before moving his head and opening his eyes, smiling when he saw Ori in his arms again.

 

"Hello again." Ori said softly and ran his fingers through Dwalin's cropped beard and stroked his jaw.

 

"Ye alright." Dwalin replied with a fond tone as he leaned forward and nudged their foreheads together.

 

"Of course I am." Ori stated with a giggle. "I can handle myself, I'm a big boy, you know."

 

Dwalin smiled and chuckled slightly until Ori pulled back and traced the mans shirt collar.

 

"But I need your help."

 

"Anything."

 

"We're getting out of here," Ori instructed before pausing and biting his lip. "Tonight."

 

Dwalin sat up slightly, his head still spinning from the tranquilliser as Ori rolled on his back and Dwalin remained over him.

 

"Is something wrong?" Dwalin asked and Ori bit his lip again, he knew eventually he would have to tell the man about his impending heat but he thought he would when they're good and far enough away in a car or on a boat and Dwalin could take him in an actual bed as free men. He wanted to mate with Dwalin, of course he did, but he did not want to do it if there was a chance that his baby would be taken from him and in this cage there would be nothing to stop them taking his child.

 

"I - In a few days, I will - will have my heat." Ori sighed before tracing Dwalin's jaw again. "And when they do, they will induce your rutting. There would be no way we could resist each other an - and-"

 

"And ye don't want to mate with me?" Dwalin questioned carefully, unsure if he wanted the answer and Ori shook his head and used both hands to cup the larger mans cheeks.

 

"No, no I do. I really do, Dwalin..." Ori reassured before sighing. "Just - Just not here, just not for them. I want us to be alone when it happens, I want it to be natural."

 

Dwalin smiled a little at that.

 

"Then I'll break us out myself."

 

Ori grinned brightly and then pulled Dwalin down for a hug and smiled brightly into the large mans shoulder.

 

That night, when the lights were dimmed and a single guard marched the hall, Dwalin and Ori waited in silence in the far reaches of the cage and when the guard passed, Dwalin grabbed him. The large man wrapped his arms around the guard through the bars and pinned him there by the neck with his forearms while Ori patted the mans pockets and eventually found a ring of keys. 

 

"I got them." Ori whispered as he held up the keys, Dwalin grunted before tightening his hold on the guard, letting him drop unconscious before letting him slip to the floor. "Come on."

 

Ori quickly ran to the gate and Dwalin followed, the small man quickly unlocked the gate before pushing it open, grabbing Dwalin's hand and running. They could have run forever, sneaking past armed guards and Dwalin knocking down those that were not armed. They moved as a unit, stopping and starting and taking it as slow as they could. The one thing they didn't predict was hidden cameras, trapped in walls and mirrors in every hall. Smaug watched with a raised brow as Dwalin hid Ori behind a bench as he took out a guard or he grinned when Ori put the wrong key in the door and fumbled to find the right one. 

 

Smaug rolled his eyes as they got to the main door and slammed a red button on his desk. 

 

"We're almost there!" Ori called to Dwalin as he pulled him, his heart racing as he saw daylight at the end of the hall, the door was wide open expecting a truck delivery soon and Ori picked up his speed. "Hold on to me, don't let go."

 

"I'd never." Dwalin whispered in his ear before they ran toward the door, faster and faster and Ori could see the moonlight and feel the fresh air again. Then there were bars, a shatter in his illusion of freedom as he slammed into the cold steel and rattled them, searching for a lock and searching through his keys. There was not a solution for either.

 

"No, no, no, no!" Ori said as he clawed at the bars, kicking them and pushing them like a desperate animal. He could see the moonlight, he was so close, he couldn't be trapped again, not again. Ori fell to his knees, crying hysterically into his hands as the moonlight shone on him. He was so close. 

 

Dwalin watched the smaller man sob and felt a stab of guilt in his stomach, he turned as he heard the guards shouting and huddling some time down the hallway. He then looked at Ori again, the small man was shaking with fear and sadness. He looked at the bars, the one thing he had always seen and never feared, not the way Ori did. Ori had been free most of his life, Dwalin had been trapped. He deserved to be trapped.

 

Dwalin growled as he grabbed the bars in the middle, pushing and pulling harshly as he felt them give slightly and then pulling outwardly. Ori finally looked up and saw what the larger man was doing and looked up at him with awe. Dwalin cursed and growled under his breath as his arms flexed and strained. Then, there was a slight pop and the bars bent open, a larger gap between them. The large man pulled the little one up to his feet and Ori hugged him excitedly.

 

"Dwalin! You did it! Come on let's go!" Ori exclaimed as he grabbed Dwalin's hand and gracefully slipped through the bars. However, as his arm extended to pull Dwalin through he got stuck. Dwalin's broad shoulders got stuck.

 

"No, no, no this is not happening." Ori hurried as he dropped the alphas hand and went back to the bars, Dwalin pulled his shoulders back through as Ori pulled the bars from his side. "See, see if we pull the bars this way, you can climb through!"

 

"Ori-"

 

"No." Ori protested the mans words as he continued pulling the bar, he was not giving Dwalin up so easily, especially after all he went through to know him and to learn his heart.

 

"Ori, please-"

 

"No, don't say it, Dwalin." Ori stated as he tried bending the bar into a curve. "We're getting out of here, the both of us. I'm not leaving you behind, I'm not leaving you."

 

Dwalin grabbed the bars too and Ori thought he was helping, but when he started pulling them up into there original position, Ori shouted in surprise and tried to pull them back.

 

"Ye have to go."

 

"I'm not leaving without you." Ori repeated and pressed himself to the bars.

 

"You said yourself, you don't want to be mated here. Then do not be, go." Dwalin stated as he slipped an arm through the bar and cupped the small mans cheek, wiping away his tear as it fled down his cheek. "Go find an alpha you can be happy with."

 

"I will never be happy without you." Ori breathed into Dwalin's wrist, kissing it tenderly with every word, Dwalin smiled slightly as he pulled Ori towards him with his calloused second hand.

 

"I wish I had not been a coward and told ye of my feelings earlier." Dwalin whispered, tears falling down his own cheeks now as his voice broke with every word. "Ye will have beautiful pups one day, Ori."

 

"And you will be there." Ori bit back, holding Dwalin's hands against him and not letting go, he placed his forehead to the larger mans own and sighed. "You will father them all. I want you to."

 

Dwalin chuckled softly, hearing the guards now running to their hideaway. He looked at Ori one last time, wanting to gather every freckle on his skin and every misplaced red curl on his head and keep them inside his heart.

 

"I wish I could." Dwalin whispered. "But ye must go, I want ye to go."

 

Dwalin took a step back, his hands slipping off Ori's skin but the small man reached forward, grabbing his wrists.

 

"Wait, you said about your feelings." Ori said as he pulled Dwalin to the bars with easy because Dwalin knew he didn't really want to go. "What are they?"

 

"Do I have to say it?" Dwalin asked and Ori sighed with a nod. "Ori, I love ye."

 

"You do?" Ori asked breathlessly.

 

"Aye." Dwalin replied as he cupped Ori's face. "I do."

 

Ori smiled brightly and threw his arms through the bars, slipping them around Dwalin's neck and pulling him in for a first and last touch of lips. Dwalin hummed and wrapped his arms as well as he could around Ori's waist through the bars and tilted his head to his him better and when Ori pulled back he held his eyes closed and ran their lips together as he spoke.

 

"I lo-"

 

"Hold it right there!" A guard shouted from the end of the hall, a group following as a metal grid began coming down between the alpha and omega, a thick metal sheet moving in a slow pace.

 

"Go, run!" Dwalin shouted as he pushed Ori away and the metal sheet blocked him from Ori's view. Then, he ran.

 

He ran as fast as the moonlight guided him.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ori is free, but his heart is not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((The long anticipated, and requested, sequel! Enjoy!))

Ori continued to run and didn't look back, he ran until his legs ached and his lungs seemed to be flaming in pain. He heard people shouting and gathering in sprinting clusters to find the omega - him, they wanted to find him. Ori hedged his way through the forest that surrounded him and tried to keep up a steady pace. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't see anything other than darkness, he couldn't hear anything other than the pounding blood in his ears, he couldn't feel anything other than a dull throb in his abdomen and an ache in his legs.

 

The small man stumbled into a hole, feeling his ankle roll nosily on the joint as he heard shouting from behind him. He tumbled down a small hill, grass as sharp as needles and flowers as fragrant as toxin as he landed at the bottom with a groan. He rolled his eyes open a moment later and reached a hand out, rubbing his cut hand onto a roughly spiked surface, then his eyes snapped into clarity as he focused on the road in front of him and the sound of screeching tires finally cracking his blocked hearing.

 

"Oh my god! Kid, are you okay!?" A concerned voice called out and Ori looked up, as startled as a rabbit in headlights as a dark haired man got out of the car, a beta with a comforting leather scent. Ori didn't know he had started crying until he could taste the salt in his mouth that mingled with his bleeding lip.

 

The beta ran to him, lifting him up carefully and pulling out his phone. Ori tried to grab at it but the man moved his hand hesitantly and watched the omega with wide eyes.

 

"Please, please listen, he - he's back there, he - I need to go back to him!" Ori did not know his own voice as it parted from between his lips, he was afraid and cold and alone and all he could think of was Dwalin, and everything that horrid man was doing to him right at this moment.

 

"Hello nine-nine-nine, I just found an unattended and beaten omega on the side of Laketown Lane... that's right, yes, yes he's alone, he came out of the forest-"

 

"No, no please, listen to me. I need him - he needs me, I - I -" Ori stuttered out and then made a pained sound as something rolled in his gut and his legs ached again.

 

"Laketown Lane, please come immediately." The man hurried back before he was bundling Ori into the back seats of his car and covering him in his coat. The smell repulsed Ori somewhat. Unattached and handsome beta men with soft smiles and dark eyes at one point would have sent his heart fluttering, but not now, not any more. He curled up inside the coat and pretended it was a muscular arm as he gagged at the smell again and whimpered.

 

"It's alright lad, the ambulance is coming now, just try to relax." The man soothed and Ori did not reply, he was already lost to this world inside his own mind. "My names Bard, what's yours?"

 

"O - Ori." The omega replied as he hid his face into his arms to wipe his eyes and mouth with the bare skin of his arm. 

 

"Everything will be alright, Ori."

 

How wrong he was.

 

 

\----

 

 

Ori laid in the moving hospital bed, staring up as the lights that he was wheeled passed sent him into a hypnotised and dizzy state. He was too tired to fight the doctors or even tell them his name, Bard had done that and had helped them load Ori into the ambulance, and now he was being pulled down the hall to emergency. Ori did not even hear the doctors that fussed and flustered themselves over him, they flashed hot lights in his eyes and checked the insides of his mouths, they looked over his arms and legs for pinpricks and scars, and checked his heads for bumps and cuts.

 

"His blood sugars are low-"

 

"Try pulling his previous files, police records, family details, anything you can find-"

 

"He is due to begin his heat tonight or tomorrow-"

 

"Inject him with the suppressor, postpone it for as long as you can-"

 

"He is dehydrated and malnourished-"

 

"We need to get him back on his feet, the police will want to speak with him."

 

Those were the only words Ori heard. The police. Dwalin. He needed to tell them about Dwalin and the fighting ring and the plan to breed unsuspecting omegas and force their children to fight.

 

"Police!" Ori said suddenly and it frightened a few of the younger members of staff, the elders obviously used to sudden outbursts. "The police, the police, I must speak to them, please take me to them!"

 

"Calm down, son. There will be plenty of times to speak with the authority when you're better." A white haired doctor replied soothingly as Ori was shifted from the moving bed to a more stable bed.

 

"No, no you don't understand! There are others back there, they - they need to-!" Ori exclaimed and the elder doctor held him down as he struggled. "My alpha, my alpha is back there, they have to go back!"

 

"It's alright lad, it's alright, please just rest. We will have this whole problem sorted." The doctor reassured and Ori stopped slightly in his struggle and looked into the mans eyes, they were soft and grey and gentle.

 

Ori found himself settling against the bed before the other staff were on him, checking him for wounds and patching up his cuts and bruises and pricking him with needles to get fluid back into his system. The swarm of staff made him feel sick and disorientated, so he closed his eyes and thought of Dwalin and soon found himself in a comfortable sleep. The best sleep he had in months.

 

 

\----

 

 

Dwalin gritted his teeth as his nose snapped against the fist that hit his square in the face. He felt blood begin to trickle from the broken feature and it made his head swim as it mingled with the blood of his broken lip. Dwalin cared not any more, he did not care what the men did to him, nor did he care that his world seemed to be crumbling around him.

 

He was chained in the centre of his cage, his arms extended above his head and his head lowered as he felt blood from his wrists drip onto his bare head, then trickle down his neck like gentle and loving fingers.

 

The fist connected this time with the side of his head.

 

"That's enough." Smaug's voice hissed in the darkness around the cage before he stepped forward, hands on his hips as he tutted with disgrace. "Honestly Dwalin, what am I to do with you? A few months with an omega and you grow the balls to betray us. Me? The only family you've ever known."

 

Dwalin spat blood from his lips and glared at the glob of spit on the floor that was red and thick.

 

"Yer no family."Dwalin growled and Smaug sighed.

 

"Do you think he ever really loved you? Nah, he was just some omega whore, he probably has five more of you at home that he needed to get back to. Ready to be bred up and spread open." Smaug taunted and Dwalin lunged forward, his chains creaking as he snarled.

 

"Don't ye fuckin' talk about him!" Dwalin growled, his teeth showing and his arms aching above him. "Don't ye fuckin' dare."

 

Smaug smirked and patted Dwalin's cheek.

 

"How sweet. So protective and bold, it's a shame that he will never see you again." Smaug replied before slipping a blade from his waistcoat and stabbing it into Dwalin's side and twisting it. Dwalin made a pained sound and tried to move away from the pain, which dug the knife deeper into his side. Smaug smiled and pressed a soft kiss to the cheek he had patted on Dwalin's face, then placed his face to the crook of Dwalin's neck.

 

"I do love you, Dwalin. You're like a son to me, one of my best boy fighters. I gave you a beautiful omega didn't I? Didn't I?! And how do you repay me? By setting him free and destroying my breeding program." Smaug snarled and Dwalin breathed deeply in pain, too tired to move. He slipped the blade out of Dwalin's side and rubbed the red stain on Dwalin's face and smiled as he stepped back and turned to the guards.

 

"Get him ready for his next fight, he's on tomorrow night." Smaug stated and the guards nodded in obedience as Smaug walked out of the cage and Dwalin felt his eyes slip down as he tried to escape the pain of his broken and beaten body. 

 

He was pulled down from the chains a moment later and he flopped heavily onto the floor, remaining on his knees for a moment before hauling himself toward the cave and laid there as he listened to the guards footsteps leaving his cage and going down the hall. He then waited a moment longer before moving his bedding around until he found what he was searching for, the torn and worn jumper Ori had forgotten.

 

He smiled at the fraying wool threads around the wrist, where Ori would tug nervously around his hands like he didn't want the world to see them and he noticed the tugged at collar of the jumper where it was sometimes too tight. Dwalin's smile twitched and pulled the woolly garment to his chest and pulled his knees around it too, breathing steadily to pull in as much scent as he could. He felt alone. Truly and finally alone.

 

 

\----

 

 

Ori groaned as he woke, staring around the white washed room while his ears twitched at the constant beeping of his heart monitor. He blinked a few times before his eyes were flashed with the hot white light again.

 

"He seems to be alright now, his fluids are up and the nurses gave him a bath while he was incapacitated so he is a little less stale." The elderly kind eyed doctor said to a figure just beyond Ori's blurred vision.

 

"He will be alright though, won't he doc?" A concerned and familiar voice asked and Ori finally found the strength to life his head and look over at the other person in the room, that then became two.

 

"I think he'll be perfectly alright, Mister Rihansen." 

 

Nori stood at the end of his bed smiling, releasing a comforting scent that was matched by Dori's, who sat closer to his bed and holding his hands comfortingly while the other ran gentle fingers through his hair. Ori felt his heart hammer quickly in joy and his stomach began to turn as a smile came to his face.

 

"Nori! Dori! My brothers!" Ori exclaimed as he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Dori and ignoring the spinning of his stomach as he gripped to his grey haired brother and sobbed with joy into his shoulder. The doctor left the room with a nod to Nori and only looked back once he was out the door as the middle brother of the group sat on his little brothers bed and slid his arms around the both of them.

 

"Oh Ori, my Ori, I'm never letting you out of my sight again." Dori whimpered and rubbed the hiccuping omegas back gently and Ori nodded through his tears as Nori spoke at last, leaning back and wiping his dampening eyes. 

 

"I searched everywhere for you, Ori. I couldn't find you - I - I couldn't-" Nori began sadly and Ori pulled him into a hug now and rubbed his face into Nori's shoulder. 

 

"It's alright, I'm here now, I'm here." Ori breathed gently and Nori nodded only slightly into his younger brothers shoulder before the omega pulled back and looked at the pair with large eyes. "And now there is something I need to tell you, and you must not worry and you must do what I ask."

 

"Anything." They replied in a heartbeat, and Ori began his story.

 

He told his brothers everything. It was like removing poison from an open wound, everything flooded from Ori's mouth like an ongoing storm that sharpened the world with a crackle of sharp electricity and soothed it with the lapping rain. He told them all about the fight ring, about Smaug and his horrible guards and awful attitude. He told them about the fighter Azog and how he had almost killed him. He told them about the scant amount of food, about the pheromone soap, about the cold and uninhabitable conditions. He told them about the cold and the distant sunlight.

 

He told them about Dwalin. 

 

He told them everything about this confused and trapped alpha.He told them how Dwalin treated him with respect and dignity, even if he himself was given none. He told them about how respectful he was and how he never did anything Ori himself did not want. He told them how he was taken when he was so young and raised in the system. He told them that he was an alpha. 

 

He told them he loved him.

 

"You what?" Nori broke the silent explanations and Ori curled tightly around his pillow. He was sat up in his hospital bed, the pillow to his chest and his brothers at the end of his bed. Nori was standing with his arms folded as he listened and Dori had to sit down during the discussion on his fight with Azog, too pale and ill feeling to stand it, and now he was curled over with his head in his hands at the mention of Ori's sudden love.

 

"I love him." Ori whispered again and Nori shifted from foot to foot.

 

"Ori, listen, you were trapped in there for a pretty long time-"

 

Ori sighed in annoyance and turned his head further into his pillow and shook it feverishly.

 

"I'm sure the affection and respect you felt for this... this alpha, could've been because of the common courtesy he gave you. That is all. There is no need to jump to such complex emotions. I'm sure he was good and kind, as you said... that doesn't mean you have to go all doe eyed over him, I mean-"

 

"You do not understand!" Ori shouted as he threw the pillow at his older brother with some force, and Nori narrowly ducked before it could hit him in the face. It sailed past the two brothers and hit the wall behind them. Nori and Dori both looked at their brother now, wide eyed in concern. The Ori they knew would never have become so rash with his decisions and so quick to anger. However, they had to keep in mind this was certainly not the Ori that was taken all those months ago.

 

"You do not understand." Ori repeated, shaking all over in frustration and annoyance and sadness. How could his brothers think he was so insensible? How could they still think he was the child that was taken all that time ago? He had grown so much since that time, a little crooked and lopsided he granted, but he was still able to think and feel as well as anyone else could. "It was more than just common courtesy. It was more than just a good alpha and a good man. He sacrificed himself for me, more times than I dare to mention or even want to think about. I escaped because he broke the gate for me but could not get through for himself, I am here today because he pushed those pars and let me through, he has done so much for me."

 

Ori paused and took a moment to wipe tears from his eyes as he tried to remain as firm as possible in the presence of his brothers. He looked up at them once more and swallowed the lump that was settling in his throat.

 

"That is why I ask, you, my brothers, to help me save him."

 

"And how are we to do that? You're still too weak to leave that bed."

 

"Tell them the story." Ori replied and Nori looked at him with a raised brow. "Tell the doctors, the nurses, the police, anyone who will listen! A single voice in a crowd will not make any difference here, but it will if the whole crowd is saying the same thing... then I have a chance to be heard."

 

Nori and Dori looked between themselves before staring at their brother who was watching them with brave and pleading eyes. They both nodded and kissed his forehead before heading out the door and spreading their brothers words, promising to be back as soon as they could.

 

Ori flopped back on his bed the moment the door clicked shut and he stared out the low window with a small smile, relishing in the tear that rolled down his nose and splashed on his pillow.

 

 

\----

 

 

Smaug stormed down the hall, looking only briefly into the passing cages and glare at the alphas that either paced nervously or were too busy fucking into their beautiful omegas to notice him pass. 

 

"He's the same as he was the other day, sir. He is still not responding to doctors or anyone that speaks with him." A guard, that was struggling to keep up with his pace, stated as they stomped down the hall. Smaug growled and loosened the tie of his suit that seemed to be choking him.

 

"He will speak with me." Smaug assured and the guard hid an eye roll as he went down another hall and left the taller man to continue his angered walking. Smaug soon came to the solid sheet of metal that worked as a door, he smacked his hand against it in a knock before it slid open and revealed to him a sorry sight.

 

This was the eleventh time Dwalin was in confinement. Ever since his last fight - and since the last time he saw Ori - he had choked two guards, fought with three other alpha inmates during their rare outside time, and broken the various limbs of six doctor who had tried examining him. He was standing upright in the centre of a solid metal room, arms bolted down in long chains beside him as he stared bleakly into the distance, through a small slash of a window that surrounded the room to let some light in.

 

"Dwalin." Smaug said as he cleared his throat and walked into the room, ignoring the cautious looking doctors that were safe behind a metal box on the outside of the room that was sealed off for their protection. When Dwalin did not reply, he tried a different approach. "DWA8973, respond."

 

Dwalin didn't even blink at the assigned numbers to him, or the command that was given. His eyes were still and focused on the outside world that was so far away, he did not even move as a humble fly landed on his arm and Smaug growled slightly.

 

"Dwalin, respond! What is your problem? How can the doctors help?" Smaug tried to sound concerned and interested, when really he was getting quite agitated at Dwalin's ignorant and disruptive behaviour. 

 

Dwalin watched as a little bird outside land on a tree and peck at the wood.

 

Smaug slapped Dwalin. Kicked him in the shin. Punched him in the gut. It did nothing, Dwalin remained still and stared outside into the forest beyond, a flash of teeth or a flash of dangerous dark eyes came to Smaug once of twice, but there was nothing else and nothing that was in Dwalin's control. 

 

Smaug eventually gave up and went to the doctors, closing the metal door behind them.

 

"What is it then? What's wrong with the beast?" Smaug asked and the doctors consulted the charts of the blood sample that they got only when Dwalin had been sedated.

 

"He seems to be going feral." The doctor responded and Smaug cursed out loud, slamming his hand into the metal frame of the door and glared at the alpha who remained still in the centre of the cell.

 

"Is there nothing we can do? He brings in more money than three alphas combined." Smaug worried, he could not have his best fighter becoming feral and useless, he would lose too much of his wealth.

 

"I'm sorry sir, there is nothing we can do. He will not last the month"

 

Smaug knew much about the feral curse of alphas. He had lost four of his fighters to it during the many decades of the rings existence. All four had lost omegas at those stages, the first two from when they were first brought in, and the other two when the breeding program first began and the omegas died in the awful conditions. Those two were eventually brought back after bringing them new omegas and letting the old bond break naturally, this was different. Dwalin's omega was alive, very, horribly, much so. He was alive and so far away that Dwalin could feel the bond between them stretch and pull at the part of his mind that made him an alpha. Omegas and Betas did not feel this pull, and if they did then it was less than those alphas who had to live with it for the rest of their days. It tore the alpha down inside until there was nothing left but a heap on the floor  He could not catch that Ori again, he would be on high alert and who knows how many unbelieving officers he had told, one of them would surely come out here eventually and he couldn't lose what few good fighters he had left. 

 

He had no choice, he would have to let Dwalin die.

 

 

\----

 

 

It took Ori some time to adjust back to his home life, he usually forgot that he didn't have to eat with his hands - a habit that was swiftly by Dori's fussing. The first night back in his own bed was a strange, he was used to a hard floor beneath his body and a strong arm nestled under his head like a pillow. In the hospital, he did not notice how lonely the bed was at night, possibly because it was a cramped cot and he was so exhausted that he never notice. However, in this large, plush, and empty bed, he noticed just how alone he was. Nori checked on him through the night, and every hour when he went in and found his little brother curled around himself on the floor with only a blanket around him, Nori would sigh and lift him back into bed, only for the same thing to happen the next hour he checked on his little brother. Ori also found it rather hard to get used to clothes, ones that actually fitted to his body and weren't soiled and torn, the first time he wore one of his favourite jumpers he ended up ripping the neck from constantly tugging at the restriction around his neck. Dori had tutted and then fixed the wool garment.

 

Fortunately, Ori's story had spread, over oceans and through clans and towns, to the north and to the east. It had spread from common people to lords and back down in all corners of the land. In a month it had spread so far that the APA - the alpha protection agency - had gotten into contact with him and asked him for directions to the fight ring as it was one they had been trying to locate for the longest time. It seemed that Smaug hid his business rather well and whenever he was taking to court for running a fighting ring, the evidence and witnesses would seemingly vanish without a trace or the judge would appear - pockets lined with coin and paper moneys - and be be completely submissive to Smaug's charming words and would bend to his will and let him free.

 

Ori spoke to the agency about everything, with the support of his brothers as Dori sat at his side holding his side as he spoke confidently and Nori stood near the door, ready to defend his family if anyone unsavoury were to walk in. He told the agent all that had happened to him and the alpha who he shared a cage with, and other alphas and fighters. 

 

Then, when the agency finally got a warrant to search the hidden ring, Ori feared they would not take him back to the fighting ring to get Dwalin back. His brothers had opposed the idea to begin with because they had only just got their brother brother back and they would certainly not want him gone again.

 

"I can't just stay behind." Ori had argued when his brothers had practically barricaded the doors on the day of the recovery mission. He had made a mental plan to leave the house early to go to the APA building and stay until they left for the mission, unfortunately, his brothers had seemingly the read his mind and had been up before even he had. "Dwalin and the other alphas will not come to them if they do not know their faces or scents, I'm the only one who can help."

 

Ori had convinced his brothers eventually and when he thought he was safe in a taxi, his brothers came charging out behind him and diving in the cab with him. They had bags packed and ready to go because they were not letting their brother go alone, Ori had rolled his eyes before telling the driver where to go.

 

The workers at the APA were not entirely thrilled at the idea of Ori and his brothers coming along either. The group was made of mostly alphas and betas to establish a dominant scent as well as some muscle to move stubborn guards along, but they could see the familiarity of Ori's scene being of use to them in some way and did not comment as they got into the dark, armoured vans, and began driving to the destination. Ori was able to help only slightly with the directions to the ring as he had been unconscious and then in the dark when he had walked the path all those nights ago.

 

"When we get there," An elderly alpha said at the steering wheel, one that Ori had not quite caught the name of once and never had the courage to ask again. "Don't go running off and acting the hero, kid. Stay with your brothers. I know you want your alpha back but we have business that comes first. Understood?"

 

Ori only nodded and bit his tongue because while he understood that the agency needed to think of their appearance and keep everything within the law, but Ori hadn't seen his mate in weeks and his hands twitched to be on him again.

 

However, Ori could only watch from a window in the back of the van as the vehicle ground to a sluggish stop before the men hopped out the back with guns in hand and belts around their waists laden with papers, metal cuffs, and repellent spray. 

 

Ori only had to wait so long before from the corner of his eye he saw the leader of the charge walking out with the first few members of the fighting ring, all joined by handcuffs and chains. Ori sat a little higher in his seat, while his brothers shuffled nervously, as the captain came and opened the door and nodded to him.

 

"It is all clear, young man. You're welcome to go in and find your mate now." 

 

Ori's heart fluttered at the words and he quickly hurried out of the back of the van and ran into the large building, his brothers calling after him and chasing him as he went. However, as Ori entered the large warehouse, he was hit with a sense of fear in his gut as his nose twitched in the air. He could not catch Dwalin's scent, there was one resembling that of the alphas but it was distant and deep with a dark scent that made Ori gag slightly. He ignored his brothers further and ran down the familiar hall, toward the cage that he and his Dwalin once shared. When he arrived, he pulled open the large steel doors and looked around the darkness, it was cold and empty like the place in Ori's chest where his heart once was before he saw this sight.

 

Ori heard a dark laugh in the distance and quickly turned to see a handcuffed Smaug, bloodied, beaten, and defeated. A smile still strung upon his face.

 

"You - You! Where is he!? Tell me now!" Ori demanded as he ran over to Smaug and slapped him in the face, the tall man turned his head dramatically and the guards holding him winced slightly at the crack of his skin. However, the man still grinned and licked his bleeding lip.

 

"I should have known a whore like you would take down all my hard work." Smaug seethed and Ori scowled in reply.

 

"Where is my Dwalin?" Ori demanded and Smaug snorted a laugh.

 

"Your Dwalin, that is tenderly sweet for a little omega like you." Smaug teased before smiling again at the smaller man. "I do not know where your Dwalin is."

 

"You're lying."

 

"I am. You're such a clever boy, Ori." Smaug soothed and gave a slight tut. "Your Dwalin is here... in body. I cannot say if his mind is the same of which you fell for."

 

"What are you talking about?" Ori questioned and Smaug leaned a tad closer to Ori's face, the guards tightening their grips on the mans arms as he did. Ori stood firm, no longer afraid of the tall man in front of him.

 

"Tell me, sweet omega. Does one know what happens when the wolf is left by his pack?"

 

Ori's frown lifted slightly as he watched the smirking man be lead away and taken as far from Ori as one could be as the small man looked around, now feeling completely lost. He could only follow the lights that brightened the hallway and follow that scent that resembled Dwalin's, and ignored the dark stench that surrounded it.

 

It didn't take long before Ori found a heavy metal door that separated the scent he longed for and himself. He called upon the help of a group of nearby guards, who had finished rounding up the final ring leaders and were now searching the area for evidence. The guards quickly hurried to the omega and helped lift the door with ease, when the alpha guards circled the door with unease, Ori knew it was best to send them away and to find his brothers and bring them to the door.

 

The guards nodded and quickly hurried off before Ori looked both ways in the hall and hesitantly stepped inside. The smell that instantly surrounded his sense was foul and made him gag. It was the stench of decay and loss and anguish and Ori wanted to block his nose and run from the scent, but there was something else beneath that, it was a warm and comforting aroma.

 

Ori jumped slightly as something rustled and clinked behind him, causing him to turn quickly and brandish his fists in the air to fend off any lurking alpha inmates. However, as he turned he caught a sight that would forever twist his heart with anguish. His alpha. His gentle alpha bound in chains with his head lowered.

 

"Dwalin!" Ori shrieked and ran to his alphas side, gently pressing his hands to any wounds he could see and trying to brush any dried blood that was there, pleading as he went. "Wake up, please, please, wake up."

 

Dwalin stirred sightly in his tense unconsciousness and raised his head slightly.

 

"O - Ori?" The alpha asked tiredly and Ori pressed closer to him and wrapped his arms around the mans tense shoulders and rubbed them soothingly.

  
"It's me, it's me. I'm here now." Ori whispered in comfort, pressing himself impossibly close to the alphas front. "I'm never letting you go again, Dwalin."

 

"I - It cannot be you... th - they said you were dead. I - I felt you leave me." Dwalin grumbled and Ori exposed his neck tenderly, letting the larger man breathe in his scent.

 

"I am here. I will always be here." Ori promised and listened as Dwalin gurgled into his neck, leaving a blood stain from his split lip as he buried his face there. Ori did not have the heart to push him away or even pull him closer, for all he wanted was for this moment to last forever, but everything good must come to an end eventually, and just like everything else tragic that happened in his life, it ended at his own name.

 

"Ori!"

 

The omega could not recall what happened after that moment of his brother shouting his name and pulling him from Dwalin's chest. The whole world seemed to blur like a painting left in the rain, he was pulled from the warm moment with his mate to a cold and fearful reality. Dwalin practically roared and yanked at his chain fiercely and after a few moments, and a few months of unseen pain and anger building inside himself, he broke free from the old chains and lunged toward the men that pulled his mate away. Ori could not see or catch a moment to breathe as he was pulled from the room and Dwalin was pinned to a nearby wall, his eyes never leaving his mate as his front was shoved to the concrete. Ori felt only one thing, his fingertips pawing helplessly at Nori's hands that grappled him away.

 

"Please, don't hurt him! Stop!" Ori shouted and begged as another two men joined the four that was trying to pull Dwalin down to the floor. "Stop, he's hurt and scared. Leave him alone!" 

 

Dwalin, at the sound of his omega in distress, went willingly to the floor and still never took his eyes off Ori and allowed his hands to be strapped together to stop him fighting. Ori watched as the doctors fiddled with needles and pots of liquid to give to the alpha to stop his primitive rage.

 

"He's not used to other people, please, stop!" Ori cried out a final time as he pushed the doctors away and knelt protectively over Dwalin, not letting anyone touch him again, not when he was so afraid. "I will walk him out, but you must let _me_ do it. Alone."

 

The guards and doctors waited for a moment, looking the small omega over with unsure eyes before all stepping back and allowing the omega, with all the strength he could muster in his small body, to lift his alpha from the floor.

 

It was a slow and agonising walk back to the van in which the team came, as Dwalin's legs had been used little in the past weeks and Ori was not as strong as he thought when he grappled the alpha up in his arms. He helped Dwalin limp slowly to their assigned vehicle and when they were finally in, hell broke loose again as Dwalin was pinned to a medic bed and injected and prodded and poked. Ori could do nothing this time, besides hold Dwalin's hand, as his alpha watched him with certain eyes until they closed heavily as they put him to sleep.

 

 

\----

 

 

Ori waited, with his brothers, patiently outside of the rehabilitation ward for rogue alphas. He had not been impressed with the medics when they had told him that this is where they were taking his Dwalin, he even argued the point that Dwalin was not wild, he was just afraid and confused and hurt and lost. They had told him they were all signs of a rogue alpha. Ori had told them they were all signs of a man desperate to be with his mate again. The argument had ended poorly.

 

Ori smiled slightly as Dori rubbed a thumb over his own where there hands connected as if he had read his mind and was trying to calm his brother back down again. He knew being in the ward made his younger brother anxious but as his older brother, Dori knew he had to stand by his younger and Nori was doing the same as he had both hands wrapped around Ori's spare.

 

Every time a doctor seemed to be approaching, the three brothers sat higher in their chairs, hoping to hear any news of Dwalin, and every time the doctor would smile kindly and then continue walking past them.

 

"Honestly," Dori huffed after the seventh time it happened. "It's almost like they do it on purpose." 

 

Nori nodded in agreement but did not say a word, Ori knew that his brother was more action than words and was definitely the least patient of the three, so he knew this endless waiting was putting Nori on edge and restless. He had told his brothers that they could go home whenever since the wait was taking so long, but they had replied quickly with loud sounding denials and negatives. Ori knew it was all a code for 'we're never letting you out of our sights again' and Ori figured that that would be both a blessing and a curse.

 

"Rihansen's for Alpha D."

 

Ori perked up at the sound of his surname and the three were instantly on their feet as the nurse looked at them with a single raised brow.

 

"One person at a time, please." He said and folded the clipboard to his chest.

 

Ori nodded at the nurse and then looked to his brothers who gazed wearily above his head toward each other, before they released their younger brothers hand and sank back into their chairs.

 

The small omega then nodded again and followed the nurse as he walked them through the ward. He was concerned at first for the alphas that decorated each side of the hall as all sniffed the air and peered up as he walked by. It wasn't a lie to say that the majority of this ward were made up of Alphas and Betas, he had seen two omega doctors before now but they had been fleeting in their movements and had left quickly. Ori followed the nurse closely, hoping to blend in his omega scent with that of the beta nurse.

 

They soon came upon a small, white washed room, that had to be unlocked by a card on the nurses belt. The nurse smiled kindly and held open the door and Ori thanked him as he hurried past until he saw just what he was looking for.

 

Dwalin was sat upright on the bed, running sensory tests with the doctors by touching his fingers together and stretching them. Dwalin was grinning slightly with every function he got right as simple as they were. The doctors had told Ori that Dwalin's rehabilitation would be a long one as he was so far into his primal subconscious level but they had also said that he was very responsive when his body was cleared and then redistributed the blockers that were required for all alphas. 

 

It took a few moments to finally draw attention away from his tests and to Ori, who was smiling brightly behind his hands and Dwalin sat further upright, stopping the test completely.

 

"Ori!" The alpha called excitedly, trying to pull of the wires connected to his chest and scramble out of bed. Ori hurried over cupping the mans cheeks gently and pushing him back into the soft bed.

 

"I'm here, I'm here, just finish your tests. I'll sit right here while you do them."

 

The once annoyed looking doctor now seemed pleased and continued his tests until they were done and once he announced the were, Dwalin was pulling Ori to him and holding him again and Ori was so wrapped up in the embrace that he didn't notice the group of doctors and nurses leave the room until the door sealed with a click.

 

"Dwalin, my Dwalin, I'm never leaving you again." Ori whispered as Dwalin kissed every inch and freckle on his face and neck, humming as he did so to give Ori his response.

 

"I will not leave you either. Never again." Dwalin replied, his voice still hoarse from lack of use as Ori pulled back slightly and ran his hands down from his alphas cheeks, to his neck, and then placed firmly on his broad shoulders.

 

"Dwalin." Ori whispered and Dwalin hummed again as he pulled back from kissing and nibbling at his omegas neck and watched the small man with a soft smile. "I never got the chance to say - to say-"

 

"Aye?" Dwalin pressed slightly and ran his hands comfortingly over Ori's shoulders.

 

"I love you." Ori breathed as easy as he did air and leaned in to press his lips to Dwalin's tenderly, say the three words between each breath of the kiss and glowing when he heard Dwalin doing the same and he knew. 

 

Ori knew despite the bad times they would put in the past and despite all Dwalin had been through, he could see a bright future with his alpha just beyond the horizon. He knew that Dwalin's rehabilitation and reintroduction to society would be a long and difficult one, but he was not afraid. He knew, deep down in his heart, he would never love, or be loved by someone as deeply as his Dwalin and he would never let him go, it was a promise they had made when they first met in the cage and it was one that would follow them into their newly found freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**_*Three Years Later*_ **

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ori fidgeted nervously with the blue and white plastic stick between his hands, pacing the bathroom floor until he was certain there would be a furrow there soon enough. He shouldn't have been surprised, not really, with them being almost a year in married bliss and making love every other night, how was he not meant to be surprised by this?

 

He looked down at the test, the timer still ticking on the side in the distance and the little lines still not revealing themselves. He placed the test down on the counter, his hands sweating nervously as he rubbed them together and against his clothes as he thought over the past three years that lead him here.

 

Smaug had been charged with a number of felonies the month that followed Dwalin's return, from forgery to murder and had been sentenced for quite a long time, as well as his closest members that helped him run the operation. The sick man, hoping to get less time of his sentence, revealed to the authorities a number of other rings within the area and sparked an international breakdown of fighting rings and new laws put into place for the protection of alpha, omega, and beta alike. Dwalin's rehabilitation had taken another nine months on top of that, as he had gone to classes to get the final bits of education he missed out on and then quickly found himself a stable job as police officer, commended highly for his strength and skill. Ori had finished his degree and now worked as a columnist for the local newspaper. It had a year after when they had moved from the city into the western countryside as was thought best by Dwalin's councillor and Ori's workmates and brothers. With the compensation Dwalin received from the courts over the ring case, they had just enough to place a down payment on a lovely cottage in the country. It was grand, with a thatched roof and cobbled exterior that matched the golden, sandy brick path that lead to the welcoming oak door, there were many rooms inside and one of the largest kitchens and bathrooms Ori had ever witnessed. However, Ori spent most of his time, in between writing columns, in the houses back garden which was full of wildflowers and a vegetable patch that the two had made and planted together on a weekend in the summer. Dwalin had proposed on New Years Eve two years after Dwalin was saved and Ori had said yes in a heartbeat, knowing that the sudden decision could never be wrong and now a year after marriage with a ring on his finger and the still test in his hands, Ori wonders if they should have taken their time.

 

Ori tapped the test on his fingers on continued to pace, he knew Dwalin still had therapy sessions for the fight ring and he had so many new responsibilities in the world and Ori was unsure if a child is what he needed right now. He thought perhaps a child would just be too much too soon, especially when Dwalin was up for a promotion at work and Ori worried a child was jeopardise that, sleepless nights and restless days were something that a baby would bring and not something needed for a columnists flexible time and a police officers strict lifestyle.

 

However, before Ori even had a chance to continue thinking things through, the door shook slightly on it's hinges from someone attempting to open it and then a voice called from the other side.

 

"Ori? Is everything alright?"

 

Damn it. Ori thought as he hurriedly looked around the room for somewhere to hide the test, all the drawers were full and the bin had no lid so any of it's contents were on display and Ori cursed the designers of the test for making them such a vivid and eye catching blue. 

 

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, it's all fine!" Ori called back and eventually just threw the test into the sink as he hurried to the bathroom door, unlocked it, and poked his head through, glancing up at his husband with a smile.

 

"The captain called me in for a case, I'll be gone until this evening, okay?" Dwalin explained and Ori nodded, his smile still firm on his face.

 

"Yes, that's fine, better than fine." Ori replied and leaned up to kiss the alpha. "Don't work too hard, okay?"

 

"Alright," Dwalin said with a chuckle. "Do you want me to pick something up for dinner?"

 

Ori's belly gurgled at the thought and he nodded excitedly.

 

"I would kill for a pepperoni pizza," Ori replied before he considered for a second and scratched his neck. "Do you think you could ask if they could put mushrooms and maybe some grilled beef, or some artichoke. Do we have any artichoke here? I'm just really craving some artichoke."

 

Dwalin raised his brow at the peculiar order but smiled none the less.

 

"I'm not sure, I'll pick some up later, if that's alright?" Dwalin questioned and Ori nodded before leaning up and pressing his lips to the taller man before Dwalin turned and left. Ori quickly closed the bathroom door as the timer on the side went off and quickly shut it off before taking a steadying breath and fishing the test back out the sink. 

 

A small plus showed up on the screen and Ori's first instinct was to shake it, maybe it would go away if he did and when he looked at it again, the plus was still as big as ever and Ori tried again and again. It didn't fade.

 

He quickly shoved the test into it's box and then hid it behind the toilet, hoping it wouldn't be found, before washing his hands and leaving the bathroom.

 

Ori sat up in bed later that morning typing on his computer, but his thoughts were far away from the column he was meant to be writing. 

  
_Damn, how am I going to tell him?_ Ori pondered as his hands rested over his eyes and rubbed. _Maybe it's too soon, one test is not enough to prove anything._  


Ori removed his hands from his face, a thought coming to him as he quickly got up, grabbed his coat and shoes, and hurried out of the door. He returned shortly from his trip to the shop with five more tests in hand, taking each and everyone of them throughout the course of the day and by the evening, the dreaded blue plus still sat, happy, fat, and imprinted on them all. Ori tossed them into the bins outside and sat in bed again, chewing on his nails.

 

"Ori, I'm home!" Ori heard Dwalin call as the outside door closed behind him. Ori stopped biting his thumb and got up, following the smell of food and sound of his husbands heavy steps into the kitchen.

 

"How was your day?" Dwalin asked and Ori smiled slightly.

 

"Unproductive." Ori replied dishonestly, feeling his hands twitch nervously at his side.

 

"Aye? Well, hows about a little pick me up?" Dwalin asked as he opened a nearby pizza box and rotated it toward Ori who then beamed brightly at the glistening look of the pizza. "Pepperoni, mushroom, and shredded beef. They didn't have artichoke at the shop where I got it from, but I went to the store and bought ye a few."

 

"Oh gods, Dwalin." Ori moaned as he grabbed a slice. "What did I do to deserve you?"

 

Dwalin preened at the compliment before stepping around the kitchen counter and pressed a kiss to Ori's cheek.

 

"I need the bathroom, be back in a moment and don't touch my pizza or ye'll be very sorry." Dwalin growled softly and Ori giggled and pressed his lips to Dwalin briefly before allowing the man to walk away and chewed happily on his pizza for a moment before the smile dropped as he remembered the test he stashed behind the toilet.

 

Ori jumped chaotically to his feet and dropped his pizza. 

 

"Dwalin, wait, don't go in t-" 

 

It was too later, as Ori turned he saw his husband in the doorway with the tattered box in one hand and the test in the other. The alpha stared accusingly at the small plus on the centre of the the stick before turning it to Ori.

 

"What is this?" Dwalin asked, his voice clear from emotion and Ori shifted nervously.

 

"A pregnancy test." Ori stated and Dwalin sighed.

 

"I know it's a pregnancy test, Ori. What is it doing here?"

 

"I - I - I don't know, maybe it's Nori's or something." Ori lied and began to fiddle with the hem of his jumper.

 

"Ori." Dwalin said, his tone provoking a warning tone and Ori sighed.

 

"It's mine, alright?" Ori explained with his hands in the air. "I - I missed last weeks heat and I - I thought that maybe -"

 

"Ye said that it was natural sometimes." Dwalin stated and Ori shrugged slightly.

 

"It is, sometimes, sometimes... not so much." Ori breathed, his eyes welling with tears slightly as he looked up at Dwalin, his face unreadable. "It's alright if you don't... don't want him.. or her... or - or either of us. I - I just -"

 

Ori barely had time to breath as Dwalin dropped the box and test and ran to his husband, wrapping him in a warm embrace and Ori let out a shaky sigh of relief as he wrapped his arms around his husbands broad waist.

 

"Of course I want ye, and the baby. I want as many as you will want to give me. I was just afraid ye didn't because ye were hiding it from me." Dwalin whispered in proclamation and Ori smiled slightly into his shoulder.

 

"Then you best prepare yourself, daddy Dwalin, because you're going to up to your eyes in children if I have anything to do with it." Ori teased and Dwalin laughed before sealing off the smaller man's giggles with his lips and pulling him toward the bedroom.

 

Ori always knew his life was headed for disaster. Since the first moment he let out his deafening cry and stopped his mother's pure heart, ever since is father walked out on him and his brothers, ever since his eldest brother Dori began working three jobs and Nori started his thieving ways, ever since he was branded an Omega. However, through all this he had remained hopeful that one day we would be able to change his sealed fate and find something that would change the course of his future, that night as he was pinned by the weight of his alpha husband, who was currently cooing at his swollen middle and stroking it with his fingertips, Ori knew that, perhaps it did not matter how his life had started, and instead was more about where it was going and how it would end. With a child in his Alphas strong arms. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Thank you all for reading and, if you have a moment, leave a comment and tell me what you think!))

**Author's Note:**

> ((Tell me what you think?))


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